The factory ship Lancing takes a stern slipway south
The Norwegian factory ship Lancing is fitted with a stern slipway - a ramp from the stern to the working deck, patented in 1922 - and taken to the Antarctic grounds. Whales can now be hauled aboard and processed in open water, in weather that would have made alongside flensing impossible. The fleet is released from the coast, and pelagic Antarctic whaling begins in earnest.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- Stern-Slipway Pelagic Factory Ship · technology system · Antarctic pelagic whaling grounds · not located
- Southern Ocean · maritime region · Circumpolar, south of roughly 40°S · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
Modern whaling: the stern slipway, the factory ship and the 1930/31 Antarctic peak
The stern slipway, patented in 1922, was first taken to the Antarctic grounds in the factory ship Lancing in 1925, allowing whales to be hauled aboard and flensed in open water and beginning pelagic Antarctic whaling in earnest. In the 1930-31 season 29,410 blue whales were killed in the Antarctic, the highest single-season blue whale catch on record, with 41 factories and about 200 catchers operating and world production reaching about 3.6 million barrels; most Antarctic companies then declared a whaling holiday and production fell to about 775,000 barrels in 1931-32. V55 verification basis: retrieved in search summary; the sources retrieved render the patent holder's name inconsistently and no inventor is asserted.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, whaling article; with the Northern Mariner study of factory-ship design · accessed 2026-08-08 · Partly verified
https://www.britannica.com/topic/whaling/Modern-whaling ; https://www.cnrs-scrn.org/northern_mariner/vol08/nm_8_1_21-37.pdf
Recorded on Stern-Slipway Pelagic Factory Ship
- The factory ship Lancing takes a stern slipway south
- The Antarctic blue whale catch reaches its all-time peak
- CCAMLR is agreed at Canberra
- The Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary is adopted
- A long-term decline in krill density is linked to winter sea ice
- Dedicated Antarctic Blue Whale Project voyages
- CCAMLR adopts the Ross Sea marine protected area
- Baleen whale consumption is re-measured, and the krill paradox sharpens
- The only published Antarctic blue whale satellite tracks are released as data
- Antarctic sea ice reaches a record low, a year after the previous one
- Antarctic meltwater is projected to slow the abyssal cell
- A physics-based early warning signal is proposed
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.
- A physics-based early warning signal is proposed · 2024-02
- The only published Antarctic blue whale satellite tracks are released as data · 2023
- Antarctic sea ice reaches a record low, a year after the previous one · 2023-02
- Antarctic meltwater is projected to slow the abyssal cell · 2023
- Baleen whale consumption is re-measured, and the krill paradox sharpens · 2021-11
- CCAMLR adopts the Ross Sea marine protected area · 2016-10
- Dedicated Antarctic Blue Whale Project voyages · 2013, 2015, 2019
- A long-term decline in krill density is linked to winter sea ice · 2004